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Friday, February 27, 2009

This post was copied from an entry on My Food Diary (MFD) during my pre-blogging days. Back then, I used the forums on MFD as my daily 'blog'. Just wanted to get my entire journey in one place.

_________________________________________February 27, 2009

I know how frustrating this weight loss journey can be! The entire month of February I've been weighing in 149's, so it is hard to see that number when you think you're doing everything right. Our bodies are amazing machines but they are also complicated so who knows why we gain (or lose) sometimes.

All you gotta keep thinking is that you're doing the right things (eating right and exercising) so it's making you healthier no matter what the scale says.

I tell you, my tape measure has become my best friend. Like I said before, the entire month of February I was weighing in 149.8 - 149.2. I take measurements every other Monday, however I totally forgot to this month. The last time I took measurements was the last Monday in January. Well I took my measurements this past Monday and even though the scale didn't move, I lost a totally of about 5 inches!!!

The scale lies sometimes!

Anyway, I'm weighing in at 148.6 today! So it's moving but very slowly!

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

This post was copied from an entry on My Food Diary (MFD) during my pre-blogging days. Back then, I used the forums on MFD as my daily 'blog'. Just wanted to get my entire journey in one place.

_________________________________________February 24, 2009

So today is the morning after doing ChaLean again and I love how I feel! I need to remember how good I feel after a workout so on days I don't want to exercise, I still get up and move. I think the weight-lifting came as a shock to my system or something because today I am sore. This is the first time my muscles are sore since starting ChaLean three weeks ago. I know I was doing one of the exercises wrong and I think I got it correct last night so maybe that's why I'm sore.

Monday, February 23, 2009

This post was copied from an entry on My Food Diary (MFD) during my pre-blogging days. Back then, I used the forums on MFD as my daily 'blog'. Just wanted to get my entire journey in one place.

_________________________________________February 23, 2009

Well I finally set my new mini-goal: 140.0 lbs. by April 10 :)

It'll be hard work since this month alone I've only lost about 1 - 2 pounds, but that was expected with the ChaLean program. I usually average about 4 - 5 pounds per month but I'm very okay with not seeing the scale move too much... I know I'm getting healthier.

Speaking of getting healthier, I've been in a huge exercise and eating funk since last week Monday, the 16th. I've been eating horribly and barely getting out exercise... so much so I counted an hour of shopping as exercise! :( I got the motivation back yesterday and ate very good (except for a small bit of ice cream after dinner) and got in a really good exercise. Finally pushed "play" on Chalene, jumped on the elliptical, and went for a really good long walk. Today I'm excited to get back on track with ChaLean after taking a week off.

We'll see how it goes.

I forgot to mention that I had a family dinner this weekend with about 20 of my cousins and relatives who I haven't seen since New Year's Eve. Everyone... and I mean everyone... couldn't believe how good I looked and the compliments felt so good! They actually think I can stop where I am as far as weight-wise, but I told them I'm only about half way to where I want to be. One of my aunties who has been supporting me big time was so happy to see how well I've been doing she just ran up and gave me the biggest hug!

I think this was the big motivation boost I needed to get me going again.

Well I'm here now totally ready... and looking forward to... exercising this afternoon! How great is that?!

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

This post was copied from an entry on My Food Diary (MFD) during my pre-blogging days. Back then, I used the forums on MFD as my daily 'blog'. Just wanted to get my entire journey in one place.

_________________________________________February 18, 2009

Originally Posted by annie177:

So going with the idea that Jayhawk suggested, I'm posting some of my charts. This first chart is actually not from MFD, but it shows how on track I am for meeting my short term goals. Right now, my goal was set from January 1 - February 16 because Feb. 16 is the date of my 13K. Still on track! :)

Start weight on 01/01/09: 157.8 Goal weight on 02/16/09: 150.0

Just an update that on 2/16/09, I squeaked by my mini goal of 150... weighed in at 149.2!

Monday, February 16, 2009

This post was copied from an entry on My Food Diary (MFD) during my pre-blogging days. Back then, I used the forums on MFD as my daily 'blog'. Just wanted to get my entire journey in one place.

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February 16, 2009

So the Great Aloha Run is ran and done!

I got up at 4:00 am this morning to be sure to get parking, then caught the shuttles down to the start of the race. The buses dropped us off about 1 mile away from the start, so the mile walk was a good warm up. But then we ended up waiting around for about an hour and a half for th start of the race at 7:00.

Well I finished the 13K in one hour and 45 minutes... which equals out to 13 minute miles! :) My boyfriend and I ran the first 5 miles or so ALL THE WAY, but by mile 6 we need to start taking some breaks. We estimated that we only walked for about a mile total, so running 7 miles is a big accomplishment for me. And I was on the local news this evening!!

My knees are so tight right now, but nothing is hurting. And I have blisters on the bottom of my feet, so I'm staying home from work tomorrow and making it a nice 4-day weekend.

So here I am at the start of the President's Day weekend. It's a nice three-day weekend and I can't wait to take some time off, relax.... and did I mention that my 13K is in a couple of days? YIKES! None the less, I'm getting so excited about it, but still a little anxious because I don't know what to expect. The weather here has been horrible... windy and super rainy... so I hope it clears up for Monday's race. I've also been training since December but a bout of really bad shin splints took me out for a month. My boyfriend and I only started seriously training in the beginning of January and we have yet to try and run the full 8 miles (=13K). The most we did in one practice run was about 6 miles, which is still fairly good, but two more miles on top of it... I don't know.

The race starts at 7:00a Monday morning and streets close to traffic at 4:30a, so in order to get parking we need to be in town and parked by about 4:00a but probably earlier since everyone else will be coming in to get parking. The night before, Sunday night, my boyfriend and I are going out for Valentines dinner since he has to work on Valentines. We wanted to postpone the dinner till maybe next weekend, but then we'd miss the Valentine's hype. We're eating light so we should be okay for the run.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

This post was copied from an entry on My Food Diary (MFD) during my pre-blogging days. Back then, I used the forums on MFD as my daily 'blog'. Just wanted to get my entire journey in one place.

_________________________________________February 12, 2009

Today I feel great! :)

Yesterday was probably one of my biggest cheat days ever... over by about 200 calories to maintain my current weight. Not too bad when you read it, but for me, that's pretty bad. I normally eat within 100 calories of my max-to-lose calories. I ate good up until dinner time... my boyfriend and I cooked up a really nice ginger salmon filet and while it was baking we were watching the Food Network. It was a show all about pizza. In the middle of the show, we both looked at each other and without saying anything, I got up to grab the number of the local pizza shop and my boyfriend got up to grab the phone. It was so funny! Anyway, we ordered pizza (all while our nice, healthy dinner was cooking) and we decided to save the salmon for another day. We finished up cooking the fish then put it in the refrigerator just as the pizza was being delivered.

So why do I feel so great?! Since being on MFD, I've almost never had a cheat day. Sure there have been days that I've eaten a lot, but it's always been good "stuff" and I always make sure I've done enough exercise to make up for the extra calories. That's why being only 200 calories over my maintenance is a big deal. Last night was my off day from exercise so that didn't help anything but it felt so nice to relax and not even think about exercise. As far as the eating, I had three slices of chicken/spinach/tomato pizza and about a cup of ice cream after dinner.

I feel awesome because I'm not regretting eating anything last night and I know if I ever have days like last night again, I'll be okay. I'm not beating myself up about it and I know I won't fall back into eating like that so there's nothing to worry about.

It was a nice treat, but my body didn't like it because my stomach has been sore all morning. I think this is a great sign... maybe my body is becoming used to eating mostly whole, healthy foods and so it gets mad when I throw in some greasy, oily, sugar-laden, saturated fatty food. The sore stomach alone will definitely keep me to my good foods.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

This post was copied from an entry on My Food Diary (MFD) during my pre-blogging days. Back then, I used the forums on MFD as my daily 'blog'. Just wanted to get my entire journey in one place.

_________________________________________February 10, 2009

Based on what I'm loosing so far, here are my monthly goals till my goal weight of 120. Now I understand gains and plateaus happen so I will adjust my goals accordingly as I hit them. I just like to see everything laid out for me so I know what I have to do.

As I start my weight-lifting program this month, I've started to adjust my views of "weight" loss. When I first started MFD, I was a complete scale watcher and everything about me was based on the numbers from the scale: my mood, my motivation, how I felt about diet and exercise, how I felt about myself, my self-confidence, EVERYTHING! But as I've been reading up more on the subject of diet and weight-loss, I have become more concerned with getting healthy rather than just losing weight. When I started MFD I not only logged my weight, but I also took measurements so this is going to be my new way of assessing my body. I belong to a couple of groups on MFD that have weekly weigh-ins every Friday but I used to weigh myself every Monday/Wednesday/Friday for my own personal reference. From now on, I'm going to cut back to only Mondays and Fridays (I weigh-in on Mondays just to keep me in check on the weekends).

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So here's an update on ChaLean Extreme:

First, a brief description of the program. It's a 90-day program broken up into three phases that last 30 days each. Each week of a phase is the same schedule:

Last night was my first day in my second week of the program so I was repeating the first weight-lifting day. Well last week I didn't get sore muscles AT ALL but I know I was lifting to fatigue. The ChaLean program is about slow reps with heavy weights, aiming to fatigue at 10 - 12 reps max. So anyway, because of the lack of soreness in my muscles, I was concerned that maybe I wasn't benefiting from the weights. After reading a ton of literature I learned that sometimes people don't get sore for many reasons, some of which may have pertained to me (I did lift weights back in November '08 but stopped in the beginning of December up until last week). But a lot of different places said to try and increase the weights the next time around and see how your body responds so I did exactly that last night.

Well, I increased the amount of weights I use for all the exercises and I couldn't believe that I could still do it. I was able to keep good form and make it to 10 or 11 reps with the heavier weights! :) I have Powerblocks, so they are in increments of 5 lbs. but my boyfriend made me 2.5 increment add ons by adding a huge magnet onto 2.5 lb. dumbbell plates. So all of the lower body exercises I increased by 5 lbs. and all of the upper body exercises I increased by 2.5 lbs. except for chest flies... I was able to increase it by 5 lbs. with proper form and technique. It's good to know that I am stronger than I thought but I'm still not sore today!!

I'm not going to increase the weight any more because if I do, I'll be lifting more than anyone in the program, but I'm still not sore today either! And I really feel like it gave me a REALLY good workout so I'm really comfortable with where I am now. Think I need to read a little more on the muscle soreness to try and understand why it's not happening for me.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

This post was copied from an entry on My Food Diary (MFD) during my pre-blogging days. Back then, I used the forums on MFD as my daily 'blog'. Just wanted to get my entire journey in one place.

_________________________________________February 8, 2009

So I started ChaLean this past Monday, the 2nd, and have done everything except for one of the dvd's, Burn Intervals and Abs, which is a cardio workout. I skipped it since I did a pretty intense run that day.

Well today I did her other cardio dvd, called Burn It Off and Recharge, and I L-O-V-E-D it!!!! I love a good cardio workout and I was getting so used to the elliptical/running/my cardio dvd's at home that this was such a nice change of pace. Almost every single exercise was a move that I've never done before, but it was so simple to follow and a very good cardio workout. I'm happy to report back that I was able to follow the "advanced" members in the crew the entire workout! :)

The second part of the dvd, the Recharge part, is all stretching and some yoga poses and it feels so good doing it! My body hasn't been sore from the lifting yet but I heard from others' experiences that it's okay to not be sore. I know I'm lifting heavy enough and my muscles fatigue (sometimes I can't even get through the entire set of 12 because my muscles won't move any more), but not being sore after the workouts has me a little concerned.

I'm definitely going to stick it out and give Chalene my all for 90 days.

I'll be giving my 30, 60 and 90 day updates as I hit them and if I have the time, I would like to start writing a daily entry just so I can keep track of how I feel and what I think may or may not be working. I really want to start paying close attention to my diet and exercise and really get the most out of both.

Friday, February 6, 2009

This post was copied from an entry on My Food Diary (MFD) during my pre-blogging days. Back then, I used the forums on MFD as my daily 'blog'. Just wanted to get my entire journey in one place.

_________________________________________February 6, 2009

Okay, so ChaLean. I love it and hate it. After viewing all the dvd's and starting the program this week, I love her concepts on slow-burn lifting and I can feel how effective it is compared to just lifting. Th workouts are short enough to keep me going strong through out the entire dvd so gotta love that also. And after looking over her meal plan (which I'm debating on following) I gotta say that there are only a handful of recipes that I don't think I'll like... everything else sounds so good and simple to make!

So what do I hate? The same thing I love... the slow-burn lifting! It makes me want to call Chalene things that I can't type here and I swear if I could lift the weights one more time after a set, I'd throw them at the tv! But I do love how I feel after each workout! The only other thing that I don't like is the quality of the dvd. It's almost like they did one take and just kept all the mistakes in. I guess I'm over-exaggerating, because the only real problem I have is seeing the camera man in so many shots! And it's not just a quick glimpse of his camera... no it's the entire camera man! I think I could point him out on the street if I saw him! The wide shot of the entire crew is great, but they have one camera man working really close to the crew to get in all the close-up shots and sometimes they cut to the wide shot before the camera man leaves the stage. None of my other workout dvd's does this and I was a little disappointed to see it in this one. Especially for the price.

But it's such a small problem for what the dvd's are going to do for my body so I'll live with it. I really do like everything else about the program! :)

Later today I'm going to set some goals and I'll be back to post them.

Monday, February 2, 2009

This post was copied from an entry on My Food Diary (MFD) during my pre-blogging days. Back then, I used the forums on MFD as my daily 'blog'. Just wanted to get my entire journey in one place.

_________________________________________February 2, 2009

So I had a very productive weekend! Saturday morning I went on a nice long hike with couple of my friends and our dogs. It was muddy and slippery, but we all had fun... especially the dogs!!! I should have taken a picture but they were muddy and tired and happy as ever. It was nice to have my pup sleep for the entire night without interruptions. :) Later that afternoon my boyfriend and I went on a mini run for only about 45 minutes but with the afternoon sun, our hike in the morning, and just finishing eating lunch, WE WERE EXHAUSTED! Not muscle or cardio exhaustion, but I felt like I seriously couldn't go any farther. Just didn't have the energy so it's a good thing we decided to make it a short run.

I'm not a football fan so I took my dog to the beach yesterday and thinking it was going to be empty, I wanted to go for a run on the beach. But it was pretty crowded. We ended up just laying around on the beach which was a nice change of pace. And I think my body appreciated the break. I did get on the elliptical last night, but nothing too strenuous.

_________________________________________

So I haven't posted a weigh in for a while and since today was a weigh-in day for me, thought it would be perfect for an update. Today I'm coming in at 151.0. I had my goal set for President's Day, February 16, at 150, and it looks like I'll be right on track with that! With today's weigh-in, I'm down more than 25 pounds since I started! It's unbelievable and I couldn't be more proud or happier with myself. I really didn't think I could do it! :)